last weekend
Andy Bell and Bruce Mercer came down from Maryland last weekend for their first hog hunt and had a real blast, both maxing out with three hogs. We had a lot of fun. I felt like I had known these guys for years from the moment they drove up. We rode around the place Thursday evening and they hunted Friday and Saturday. Andy has already called and left a message, saying that he is coming back in the spring and bringing his entire family.

I got to do a little hunting as well. My wife and I went out Saturday morning and walked into the swamp down a road that deadends on a penisula that juts out into the Ocmulgee River. I initally intended to walk almost all of the way to the river itself and take a hard left into the swamp from there--just amble around a little bit, walk for a while and sit--that sort of thing. After we had walked about 200 yards down the road, a spike chased a doe across the road in front of us, so we went into the woods right there. We eased along and crossed a big slew. At one point a big hog came running right across our field of vision. He never saw us, but something had him spooked, possibly the deer, because he grunted the entire way until he was out of sight. I would have liked for my wife to shoot him, but he was moving too fast for her to even get her rifle up.
After about an hour, I spotted the spike and doe right along the edge of the riverbank. We had been creeping along the entire time and finally caught up to them. They were behind some trees and palmettoes, so it was hard to make them out, but all of a sudden, the spike ran off and a buck stepped into view. I couldn't see his rack very well. I called my wife up to where I was standing and she put her scope on him but apparently couldn't see anything. We sat still for about five minutes and crept forward a little farther. He kept coming in and out of vision, walking behind the trees on the riverbank. I could tell his body was huge and I thought he had a really decent rack, but I wasn't sure. I kept urging Jana (my wife) to shoot him, but she couldn't get a good view of him. Finally I saw his breath blowing behind some trees and asked to hold her rifle, which, unlike mine, had a scope. When I spotted the buck in the scope, I noticed that he was looking right back at me. On impulse, I shot him.

He turned out to be an 11 point buck with a few kicker points, an old deer who was going downhill. His rack really wasn't that impressive and had a very bizzare structure, but he would have been an incredible first kill for my wife, a fact of which she keeps reminding me. I doubt I'll ever be forgiven for shooting him out from under her and she's so disgusted with me, she says she'll never go hunting with me again.

Greg Dailey came back down on Sunday with a friend. His buddy saw two eight points but wasn't buck hunting. He wound up with a trophy boar---huge but lacking the tusk length of the one Greg killed earlier this fall.

Well, I've got to go, but we've got two groups of hunters coming in the next week. There has been a lot of action at Yellow Bluff this year, and I expect it to keep happening.

Michael Williams (cook, guide, website designer, and writer)

Last Two Hunts
Well, we just finished two hunts, one last week, and the other last weekend (Halloween). Greg Dailey, a boxer from Alabama, brought some friends down during the week and they scored an unbelievable trophy hog (250-300 pounds).

That weekend we had Don Latch and friends come in. They got here early on Thursday, and even though the hunt didn't officially start until Friday, we allowed them to go ahead and hunt that afternoon, since they were repeat customers. It was a slaughter. That afternoon alone they got 11 hogs between them. Their overall take for the weekend was a little hazy to me, but in Don's words, "James shot 2 pigs, Elton shot 2 pigs, Ed shot 2 pigs, Harry shot 4 pigs (on the first night there), and I shot 2 pigs, 1 doe, and 1 nice bobcat." We enjoyed comraderie and friendship all weekend, and I've never used a Weber grill so frequently in my life. We literally grilled chicken, boston butts, deer steaks, hamburgers, and sausage. By Sunday night I was sick of grilled food. I never thought I'd say those words, but I fried some deer steaks for supper that night.

The guys took off sometime during the wee hours of Monday morning. I didn't help them pack, and despite the massive homeade cooler they brought, I still doubted their ability to carry all that meat home with them, but apparently they were able to fit it all. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I'm still in touch with Don. He's sent me a lot of picture which I've put up on the website. So, James and Elton Pifer, Ed Beatson, Harry and Don Latch, I'll see you guys next year.

First Hunt of the Fall
Well, we just finished our first hunt of the season. Nelson Arrington and two friends came down from Greenville, South Carolina. They have been here before and they were welcome guests this time. Incredibly nice people who just enjoyed a terrific hunt. The place was a little wet the first day, but that didn't stop all three guys from scoring a hog Friday morning. That evening Nelson finally got a big one--a two hundred pound curly haired boar with a long snout. We've been seeing him around all summer and he had gotten so bold, he was eating seed out of the bags we left in the plot while we were planting. Nelson saw him in the Cravey Field and stalked him through the swamp for a few hundred yards before shooting him in the head, unfortunately ruining his chances for a mount. We skinned the head out anyway, and sent him home with a gruesome hog skull to decorate his office with and possibly freak out his wife and kids.
The swollen Ocmulgee River began to drop and they had more mobility Saturday. Everyone got two hogs and maxed out their limit. We watched a little football Saturday--the Bulldogs devastating loss to Tennessee, not to mention these Gamecocks fans' loss to Ole Miss, but a good time was had by all and we topped it off with a traditonal Southern meal Saturday night of Smoked picnic ham, purple hull peas, corn on the cob, rice and cornbread. These guys had the time of their life and so did I. I know they can't wait until next year.